Blue Band tradition
by NtIU
Summary: There's a wedding and Ryan decides to bring up the his family's Blue Band tradition to celebrate the couple. But when the wedding is crashed by the MalaNoche and the cartell sees something that scares them away, only Calleighn and Ryan know what it is...


**So I decided to take a break from my two series (how the hell did that happen?) and just write an independent one-shot. If you've read chapter 3 in my story "Bird Necklace" you might have noticed the mentioning of the "Blue Band tradition" which is a tradition in Ryan's family that was never really explained. So I thought I'd clear it out.**

**And just so you know Calleigh's father is dead in this story. And even though it's Calleigh and Eric's wedding it's not really a story about them. Although I am a huge Hiphugger fan! I just really wanted to explain the tradition : ).**

**Disclaimer: I don't own CSI: Miami or the characters. (Although I am currently working on a plan together with Anna. Mwahahahaha!)**

"Wow." Ryan exclaimed when he walked in to Calleigh's room in the back of the church, seeing her in her white dress. "You look amazing!"

"Thanks." she smiled, watching herself in the mirror. It was her mother's old dress. It was a little old fashioned with the shoulders and the lace but she thought it couldn't have been better. "Is there anything you need?" she asked him.

"No, I just wanted to make sure that you've got everything **you **need." He said and adjusted her veil a little bit.

"It depends. Are all the guests here?"

"Yes."

"And all the bridesmaids and groomsmen are dressed and sober."

"Yes. I checked myself."

"And Eric is still here?" she continued anxiously.

"Of course he is! Only an idiot would pass up on the opportunity to marry you!" She started smiling at the man she considered her younger brother again.

"Thanks."

"Plus, he knows that Horatio, Walter, Natalia, Frank and I, just to mention a few, would slaughter him if he did anything to hurt you." She laughed carefully at him. "So that's it? You've got everything?"

"I guess. The dress is something old. The engagement ring is something new. And the necklace is something borrowed from Eric's grandmother." she said and fingered at the beautiful pearl necklace around her neck.

"What about something blue?" Her eyes narrowed and Ryan could see the anxiousness come back to her.

"I thought you said that you would get me…"

"Relax Calleigh! I'm just messing with you! I've got it right here." He took up a silver bracelet from his pocket. It was covered in some kind of blue symbols that built a pattern around the bracelet that looked like waves.

"Oh God Ryan, it's beautiful! Where did you get that from?"

"I bought it, how else."

"It must have been really expensive!"

"It was, but It's tradition so it doesn't matter." he shrugged.

"What kind of tradition?"

"Well, in my dad's side of the family whenever a woman marries she is given a bracelet just like this by her father or her brother. We've even got a private gold smith who knows how to do an exact replica of the bracelet, with the symbols and everything, for every time someone new in our family gets married. In that way the meaning of the symbols on the bracelets aren't lost."

"What do the symbols mean?"

"I've got absolutely no idea." he chuckled. "But it's still a nice tradition."

"It's great! But I'm not your daughter. Or your sister."

"Sure you are. My sister I mean. You've been like my older sister ever since I first started. And after spending most of my life looking after my baby sisters, both from dad's and mom's side, I've really enjoyed having an older sister." Calleigh smiled at him sweetly and held out her arm for him to put the bracelet on.

"Give me away." she said suddenly, still gazing the beautiful bracelet.

"What?" She looked up into his eyes.

"Give me away." she said again, more confidently.

"I don't think that I…"

"Look, Ryan. You've got your sisters. You know how much a woman looks forward to her wedding. I've spent so much time of my life imagining this day, and not once have I thought that I'll be walking down the aisle on my own. I know that since I started planning the wedding after dad died I should have thought about it, but I just couldn't. I can't walk down on my own." she choked, feeling tears coming up in her eyes. Damn it! She really missed her father. "And normally if the father can't do it…"

"The brother gives the woman away. I know, I did it for my sister, **all **of my sisters hate my father, remember? But I still don't think that I'm the person for this. Maybe Horatio…" She shook her head.

"Horatio's Eric's best man. It would be too sudden to just change everything."

"Yeah, well I…"

"Ryan, you're my brother. I love you. And I really want you to give me away. Can you do that for me. As your sister and best friend?"

Looking down at her begging green eyes he couldn't help but give in.

"I'd be honored to." he said and she started smiling again. "But it's your loss." She chuckled and hugged him tightly.

-/-

After the ceremony was over everyone gathered in the party tent outside in the wonderful Miami weather. Calleigh and Eric were dancing closely together in the center of the crowd, their happiness practically shining around them.

"Can you believe how happy they are?" Natalia said and accepted the champagne glass Ryan was handing her.

"Well, they just got married. They're in the honeymoon stage. Give them a few months and they'll be ripping each others heads off." Natalia turned and looked him in the eyes.

"Why being such a pessimist? You've got something against weddings?"

"No, not at all. In fact, I love weddings! There's an open bar and drunk, depressed bridesmaids, what more can a man want?" he laughed.

"So that's what you're trying to do! You're trying to get me drunk to get me into bed."

"Ah, you caught me." he sighed in false defeat.

"You know, all you had to do was to ask." she said seductively and leaned against him.

"Oh really?" he murmured back, a cocky smile spreading on his face.

"Maybe we should…"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" A loud voice screamed as tattooed, armed men ran in under the tent, turning every table and beating away everyone in their way. One of the men started shooting wildly among the guests as they tried to run as far away from them as possible.

"Mala Noche." Horatio said angrily from behind Ryan.

"Get the woman." One of the men said loudly and pointed against Calleigh.

"No!" Eric yelled and ran in front of her to protect her. But he was no match to the men. The other's tried to help too, but none of them had thought about bringing their weapons to the wedding, and they had no protection against the armed men.

One of the men dragged Calleigh behind the food table while the rest were fighting close by. She tried to get herself out of his grip but he was too strong. She pulled back in one last attempt to get free but all it did was to get him angrier and take a better hold of her.

"You stay right here you…" Suddenly he got quiet, his eyes fixated on her bracelet. He got pale and looked at her with fear in his eyes. "The Ghost." he said quietly. "THE GHOST!" he screamed for his friends to hear. "She's a ghost daughter!"

"Are you sure?" One of the other men asked him, getting close. The first man closed his fingers around the bracelet and dragged it of her wrist, showing it up to his friend who also got pale. The man continued to hold the bracelet up for all the Mala Noche members to see and suddenly they were all gone, just as fast as they had came.

Eric hurried over to her, closely followed by Ryan, Horatio, Natalia, Walter and Tripp.

"Are you alright?" he asked her worriedly.

"I-I'm fine." she said carefully, still a little shaken over what had happened.

"What happened, why did they leave?" Natalia asked.

"I don't know…" she stroke her wrist where the bracelet had been. "The bracelet. They took it." she said suddenly.

"That's ok, as long as you're…"

"No, they left because they took it."

"You mean they were after the bracelet?" Eric asked her carefully, not really knowing what bracelet she was talking about.

"No." she said frustrated, still too shaken up to get the words out right. "They left because the bracelet scared them."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would some jewelry scare them off?"

Calleigh looked up into Ryan's eyes.

"I don't know, why would it?" she asked. The other probably thought that she was talking to herself, but Ryan knew she was asking him. And all he could do was to think that **HE **had broken his promise, and that The Ghost was back in his life…

**So there it was, the explanation to the bracelet. Kind of. Now I'm going back to my other two stories :P**

**And as always: RnR away!**


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